Neil Cavuto Goes on a Rampage Over John Edwards

Neil Cavuto devoted nearly 20 minutes, spanning four segments, to bashing John Edwards today (July 16, 2007). John Edwards leads the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire. If the media would cover him, it's possible that many Americans would like what he has to say. Why else would Fox spend so much time trying to make us hate him?

Cavuto opened his show with what turned out to be a segment designed to lay the groundwork for what was to come. His guest was Michael Steele, the Chairman of GOPAC. Steele was on to talk about how the GOP should go on the offensive and tout our roaring economy and the on-fire stock market.

With video.

While Fox went to a split screen showing video of George Bush, Mitch McConnell, more video of Bush, video of the "big board" at the New York Stock Exchange, and clips of Rudy Giuliani, Steele proceeded to tell Cavuto's audience that, "this is a grand opportunity for our Republicans [Our Republicans? As in his and Neil's?] to get out there and lay out their vision of how we sustain this growth and expand on it." He said corporations are, "the backbone of our economy, for goodness sake. Who do you think's employing all these folks out here? Who do you think is providing the health care for the vast majority of Americans...? Companies are trying to find innovative ways to do that and how they're able to do that is by taking the wealth that's being created in this economy and bringing it back inwards to figure out ways to hire new people, expand operations, and provide benefits as they see fit."

Of course Cavuto didn't bring up that corporations are also turning that wealth "back inwards" and, "as they see fit," paying their executives humongous salaries. See, The Richest of the Rich, Proud of a New Gilded Age: "5 percent of the national income" goes to "families in the upper one-one-hundredth of a percent of the income distribution â currently, the almost 15,000 families with incomes of $9.5 million or more a year..."

Moving on, Cavuto's next segment featured a roundtable discussion about whether or not the "rally" in Internet stocks is "hotter than the Dow," and "is it the real deal?" (Here's a link to video. Good luck watching it via Fox's antiquated video system.) Fox again went to a split screen and when not showing the six excited participants, it repeatedly flashed the closing number on the Dow. Toward the end, Cavuto had this exchange with Jonathan Hoenig:

Hoenig:

You're not seeing the public euphoria that you saw back in '99. I mean, the barbers aren't really talking about tech stocks...

Cavuto:

My barber is. Of course, he's John Edwards' barber.

Without going to his first break, Cavuto moved on to Al Parinello, founder of PreserveTheAmericanDream.com. Parinello was on to talk about how "Edwards is attacking the American dream." Fox again went to a split screen, showing John Edwards campaigning. Parinello said he doesn't know when he "became the enemy." He claimed that the "attack" on the rich and the plan to raise taxes is going to put self-made millionaires out of business. (Again folks, Edwards is proposing raising taxes on the rich, you know, the $9.5-million-a-year crowd.) He said it's going to stifle creativity and it is going to cause business owners to fire employees.

Again, without breaking, Cavuto moved on to guests Karen Hanretty, a Republican "campaign consultant," and Mark Lamont Hill, a professor at Temple University. Their topic was summarized by the chyron at the bottom of the screen: "Road to One America: Code Word for Socialism?" Road to One America is the name of a tour John Edwards is taking through the south as we speak. I hope you get the gist of this discussion from the title. If you'd seen the video of Edwards on the split screen that aired throughout, Fox's message would have been clear.

Okay, so now we're at eighteen minutes into the show and Cavuto moves on to rant about terror and Mexicans immigration -- until he hits his "Common Sense," or "analysis," segment. Cavuto's "analysis" is officially the time when he gets to editorialize but obviously, that's nothing more than a bunch of crap. Here's the text of Cavuto's "analysis," titled, "The Quickest Way to Spot a Phony" ("fair and balanced journalist" Cavuto might want to look in the mirror), and below is the video version. It lasts approximately 70 seconds. Pay close attention to the videos cut into it, and to what Cavuto is saying as they change. Pay particular attention to the last three or four seconds. For those of you who don't have the time or patience -- it is a clip of someone applying hair spray to John Edwards' hair. It looks like video of Edwards sitting in a Green Room somewhere.

Comment: So this is "fair and balanced news" and yer tellin' me that Fox doesn't spew Republican propaganda? I have never, ever seen a run like this on Fox attacking a Republican. Never. Ever. Oh, and by the way, when is Cavuto going to use this pretty-boy Breck-guy's hair against him?